We all have traditions: we all have things that we are taught — either by the state, by the media, by our parents or by our schools that you do not do these things if you are right and proper.

“Do not smoke nicotine, but marijuana is OK”
“Dp not judge anyone because that is unloving but hate those who teach that something is wrong”.
“Vote Labour because that is what we have always done”
“Vote Tory because that is what we have always done”

“Stick to the rules of the assembly and our traditions because that keeps us as a witness against society and a righteous community”

The Pharisees followed not merely the 700 odd commands in the Torah but had put rules and regulations around these. They were spiritual Health and Safety people. And they are called out on it.

	Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

	“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
	in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
	
		You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

	And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)—then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

	And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

(Mark 7:1-23 ESV)

I should add that I have a personal hatred of the culture of health and safety, where all forms are ten pages long and in triplicate, and filling in the form is a substation for looking at the weather and the terrain and assessing if your group can get where you want to go today, or if you should spend another day in camp. Much of what we do involves risk, and complex paperwork does not alter that risk one jot. It may make it worse, because we have “done the Health and Safety” and thus we feel immune to the risks.

There is a risk, a great risk, that we will spend too long on process and certification and governance that we will not say to others that it is their lusts and greed and gossip that defile them, not their keeping of the paperwork. That we will forget our purpose — to bear witness to the gospel and bring glory to Christ — in the concerns about the regulations that people of good will have lumbered our institutions with.

We may have rebelled against indulgences, but carbon taxes are mandated.

For at the end, we will stand before the throne of God, and we will be found to be defiled. All of us. It is Christ who will save us from damnation, for his blood will cover our offenses. Be more concerned about that than the traditions of the elders or the demands of the SJW.